Home and Away
Home and Away is a weeknightly half-hour television soap opera produced in Australia. It is shown on the Seven Network in Australia and is exported to many countries, most notably the United Kingdom, where it briefly became the subject of a bidding war between ITV and Channel 5 (Channel 5 won). The show has more viewers in the larger UK market than it has in its home market, and Five funds more than half of the production costs. It has run since January 1988 and is still in production.
Synopsis
It features the travails of the inhabitants of a fictional small coastal town in New South Wales called Summer Bay. The soap originally revolved around one family, which was Pippa and Tom Fletcher, and their foster children, who included Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport, & Sally Fletcher, who was adopted by Tom & Pippa. The family became bigger when Bobby Simpson (daughter of Donald Fisher & Morag Bellingham) came into the picture as well as her adopted younger sister Sophie years later. But it now has many different families: the Hunter family, the Holden family, the Fletcher/Saunders family, the Patterson/Bakers, and Alf Stewart (an original character) and his grandchildren, Ric & Martha.
As of 2004, the program concentrates on the family occupying and running the local caravan park who typically foster several teenagers.
Like Neighbours, Australia's other daily half-hour homegrown soap, it attracts a mainly teenage audience and features a constantly-rotating teenage cast with several older actors who tend to last considerably longer.
Cast
See main article: List of cast members of Home and Away
Current cast members
- The Master (Cranky Old Bastard) (2006-)
- Holly Brisley (Amanda Vale) (2005-)
- Tim Campbell (Daniel Baker) (2004-)
- Lyn Collingwood (Colleen Smart) (1999-)
- Indiana Evans (Matilda Hunter) (2004-)
- Mark Furze (Ric Dalby) (2005-)
- Kip Gamblin (Scott Hunter) (2003-2005)
- Jodi Gordon (Martha McKenzie) (2005-)
- Chris Hemsworth (Kim Hyde) (2004-2006)
- Clarissa House (Beth Hunter Sutherland) (2003-)
- Ivar Kants (Barry Hyde) (2005-)
- Isabel Lucas (Tasha Andrews) (2003-)
- Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts) (1992-)
- Joel McIlroy (Flynn Saunders) (#2) (2003-2006)
- Ray Meagher (Alf Stewart) (1988-)
- Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson Baker) (2000-)
- Paul O'Brien (Jack Holden) (2005-)
- Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher) (1988-2006)
- Ella Scott Lynch (Hayley Lawson) (#2) (2005)
- Jon Sivewright (Tony Holden) (2005-)
- Jason Smith (Robbie Hunter) (2003-)
- Sharni Vinson (Cassandra 'Cassie' Turner) (2005-)
- Rhys Wakefield (Lucas Holden) (2005-)
Recurring cast members
- Daniel Collopy (Joshua West)
- Cornelia Frances (Morag Bellingham)
- Isaac Gorman (Ryan Baker)
- Tameka and Bojana Main (Pippa Saunders)
- Doug Scroope (Graham Walters)
- Cameron and Nicholas Stevens (Vincent "VJ" Patterson, Jr.)
Future cast members
- Nicholas Bishop (Peter Baker; return date TBA)
- Debra Lawrance (Pippa Ross) (early 2006)
- Tempany Deckert (Selina Cook) (early 2006)
- Adam Willits (Steven Matheson) (early 2006)
- Emily Symons (Marilyn Chambers/Fisher) (mid 2006)
- Emily Perry (Zoe McAllister) (2006)
- Amy Mathews (TBC) (2006)
Actors Kate Ritchie and Ray Meagher have been with the show since the first episode, the longest such run in Australian television history. Ritchie was aged nine and playing a character a year younger when the show began filming in late 1987. Her character, Sally, is now a teacher at the local high school, and became Acting Principal when Norman Coburn's character, Donald Fisher, the previous principal and fellow original cast member, left the show. She is now assistant principal.
Successful former cast members include Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Dannii Minogue, Julian McMahon, Simon Baker, Melissa George, Tammin Sursok and Daniel Goddard, Rowena Wallace, Belinda Giblin.
Production and broadcast schedule
The show is filmed five days a week for 46 weeks of the year. The crew is given a four week holiday at Christmas and a two week break for recuperation mid-year. A normal shooting day is 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, but can go later if shooting goes over time. There are 8 weeks between shooting and airing the program. Much of the shots are taken in Channel Seven's Sydney Epping studio, as well as at Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches region.
Australian Broadcast
Home and Away is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 7:00 PM. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for some years where Seven broadcast the Olympic Games in which only 44 weeks worth of episodes air). Each new season begins on the second Monday in January, and the season finale airs on the last Friday in November.
During the broadcast there are three ad-breaks and immediately following the broadcast of each episode is a short promotional trailer for the next episode..
International Broadcasts
As of 2004, in the UK, the show is broadcast weekdays at 6:00 PM, (repeated 12.00 AM weekdays and omnibus on Saturdays 11.25 AM - UK only). Other countries that broadcast Home and Away include: Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Estonia; Ireland; Israel; Lithuania; New Zealand; Norway; Poland; South Africa and Sweden.